


Making a List and Checking it Twice

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Post-Game(s), Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 19:49:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12942462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: Chisato finally tracks down the interstellar black marketeer 'Santa'.





	Making a List and Checking it Twice

Chisato had been crouched behind the statue nearest the door all day, camera at the ready, eyes wide with coffee-fuelled intensity. The sixth floor of the Cave of Trials was as dangerous as everywhere else in the ancient sealed labyrinth. Chisato would never normally come here alone but this happened to also be the day when Celine had dragged Ashton, Claude and Rena with her on a formal dungeoneering expedition to find out what exactly was in the place and why its gate had suddenly been unsealed after what was probably thousands of years. With the monsters largely cowering from the party's jolly campaign of murderous looting, Chisato had decided it was high time for some undercover investigations of her own.

Weeks of tracking down the local black markets and following up on the rumours she heard there, secretly trailing the leaders of Hilton's organised crime gangs when they disappeared to remote places in the desert, finally taught her the whereabouts of the near-mythical interplanetary illicit trader nown only as 'Santa'. Further covert trailing of the bandits who made their lair in the sixth floor were rewarded when she saw a hidden panel slide away in a completely unmarked wall. Sneaking inside via a pile of crates they were shifting, she saw everything that confirmed her suspicions In a hangar hidden in a cave like a smuggler's cove was a small but fast star trading vessel, equipped with some very advanced systems, including what looked like a cloaking device and several rapid heavy missile systems that did not belong on a trader. Not that completely unregistered starships were allowed anywhere near planets protected by the UP3 in any case, especially ones customised with stolen military technology and that were carrying crates of stolen high-grade weapons, rare gems and even symbological artifacts. 

Chisato could see why the man was called 'Santa' in the world of interplanetary organised crime. To his clients on worlds not equipped to see such advanced technology yet, he must seem like a provider of miracles, come out of nowhere like Father Christmas flying through the sky and dropping presents down the chimney. What a benevolent soul he must seem, with his sack of toys that could turn the tide of a major war in an instant - and for a reasonable price considering their value, even if that was still the GDP of a small nation.

No doubt it had something to do with the Ten Wise Men being able to get their people down onto the planet's surface when they themselves couldn't quite manage it for long yet. And even if that hadn't happened, the entire social, political and econonmic balance of an entire planet would be turned on its head by one person in a matter of days.

Chisato held her camera up, taking care to remain silent while sneaking closer to get a better angle for the shot. She could have done more - she was in range to train a lightning gun on Santa's head - but then she would not have survived and no doubt there was a Santa Jr. ready to step into his jolly fur-lined boots and the camera was always, always the more powerful weapon in the long term.

The pictures taken, she slipped silently out again, taking the warp short-cut to the bottom floor. The Nede Chronicle probably didn't exist any more, or at least was impossible to contact, but now she had friends on Tetragene and Earth.

"The truth will out," she promised herself as she hailed Opera on her surface-to-ship communicator.


End file.
